7th April 05

Gravano On Gotti

In the day room today I was joined by Junior Bull (Sammy the Bull’s son), and I asked him about growing up in a Mafia family and his relationship with John Gotti the Gambino crime boss known as "the Teflon Don." The following is blogged with Junior Bull’s permission.

“John Gotti was a good guy. I considered him an uncle. I remember getting hit by a car, and I was in hospital, and he came and visited. There was an aura about him. I was at a Holy Communion service once, and there was about one-hundred-and-fifty people. There was a bunch of made guys there and Frankie Valli of the Four Seasons,
and there was a bigger line to shake John Gotti’s hand than Frankie Valli’s. Everyone loved him: the women, the kids. You knew when he was in the room. He had presence, an aura. Everyone wanted to meet John.”
“Did you know what John and your dad were up to?”
“I saw money and guns. I didn’t know that it wasn’t legit. My dad had a construction business. People were always visiting, paying respect. I didn’t realise what the mob was until I was sixteen, after the government got him.”
“Can you tell me more about John?”
“He shoulda moved to Hollywood and been a movie star. He woulda been a huge movie star. I think he thought that he was a movie star, not a gangster. Once, my father was eating with John at a restaurant in Brooklyn and a married couple a few tables away were pointing at John and laughing. My father asked John if they were bothering him, and if he wanted those people out of the restaurant, and John said, ‘No. Leave them alone. This is my public.’ My dad was a mobsters’ mobster. People are not supposed to know who you are. Mobsters are supposed to be on the DL [down low].”
“How did you feel about John’s death?” (John Gotti died of throat cancer on June 10th 2002.)
“When John died I was sad, very upset. I shed tears because of the way and the circumstances he died.”
“What were the circumstances?”
“He died in Springfield Medical Unit. He couldn’t eat or talk for six months. He died a brutal death. He died in a lotta pain. A guard told me that John suffered for a good ten months.”
“Did John ever show a bad side?”
“I have mixed feelings. I didn’t like what he did and how he handled some things. He threatened to kill a lawyer who was cross-examining my dad and someone got found guilty of a murder that he didn’t conspire to commit. My dad even admitted to it but they didn’t care. John was the down fall of the Mafia. He brought the entire Mafia down because of his big mouth.”

Inmate Resources: Petition for special family visits

A fellow Orangeman at Buckeye Prison, Taz, and his wife Susanna, have started a petition requesting broader inmate visitation privileges, including lengthy visits in homelike surroundings. By allowing inmates to interact with their loved ones in a less rigid environment, released inmates would have less difficulty adjusting to freedom, which should increase their chances of becoming successful members of society.

Ideas such as this petition, which emphasize rehabilitation, are worthy causes. Readers can obtain more info or register for the petition at:
thepetitionsite.com
or email Bluesapphires4@aol.com